These indulgences can tip your calorie and point intentions into the red zone. They also fall short on nutrition and satiation. But there’s a better way. Introducing my favorite pumpkin recipes!

My deep-rooted love of all things pumpkin is not without merit. Pumpkin adds volume, flavor, and minimal calories to dishes. Its orange color is a hint that it’s rich in beta-carotene.

This antioxidant converts into vitamin A in the body and has an important role in preventing cancer and disease.

There’s no reason to be shy about these facts:

1 cup cooked pumpkin = 49 calories.

Am I advising you to eat plain, cooked, boring pumpkin? Not quite. My recipes will incorporate the benefits of the ingredient and tickle your taste buds at the same time. Tis the season to fall for these pumpkin recipes.

Breakfast

Staples

Keep these staples on hand in your refrigerator for guilt-free dessert-like breakfast toppings.

Pancakes

If you make any of these pumpkin recipes, choose this one. My favorite is Pumpkin Protein Pancakes. My tried and true recipe is below.

Servings: 1

Ingredients:

1/2 cup 1% fat cottage cheese

4 egg whites

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup rolled oats dry

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

Instructions:

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse. Once smooth, pour into two hot no-stick frying pans. Your batter will take a little longer to cook than regular pancakes due to the thicker consistency. Watch for bubbles, as typical, to check for doneness.

For an alternative to the pancake, try one of these dense and flavorful French toast options. I like to cook mine until the edges are crusty. You’ll notice the pumpkin flavor most in the fluffier interior.

Smoothies/ Shakes

Of course, fresh pumpkin has a season. It can be cooked (even in a slow cooker) and pureed. Or use canned pumpkin. It’s readily available, inexpensive, and convenient. Important tip: Beware of canned pumpkin versus pumpkin pie filling. The filling is loaded with extra sugar and calories these recipes don’t need.

We all delight in something a little sweet to eat especially during the holiday season. My friend JJ loves making chocolate chip cookies. My uncle is famous for his sweet potato pie. Everyone has their dessert of choice they make or crave. Me? I love anything with apples and cinnamon.

Oh, that delectable smell that hits me when they’re roasting in the oven always makes me weak in the knees!

So, when I received last month’s fingerlickinkitchen.com recipe request for a healthy Monkey Bread for xmas day, I knew my first experiment was definitely going to involve apples!

For those of you who might not be familiar with Monkey Bread it’s traditionally a baked bread/cake that is made of individual knots of cinnamon rolls with a butter sugar glaze.

The average recipe I found contained 2 cups of sugar, made with extra buttery grand biscuits, and 2-3 sticks of butter. That is what I’d call a sugary bomb of fat and salt. From the grand biscuits to the sticks and sticks of butter, a slice of the of average Monkey bread could really wreak havoc on your blood sugar and waist line, which makes it a great candidate for a healthy makeover.

First things first, in order to spruce up this recipe I knew I had to cut the fat and sugar content way down… which wasn’t very difficult to do. I got rid of the buttery biscuits by using a whole grain pizza dough.

Yes, I said pizza dough.

It’s the perfectly sticky substitute that can carry flavor but, doesn’t require the fat of biscuits, not to mention it’s easy to make or buy in the store.

Then, I got rid of 90% of the butter and sugar. I personally never use white sugar when cooking. I used date sugar (Now and Bob’s Red Mill both make easy to find versions), cut up some whole ground dates, sugar free apple sauce, and added a little raw sugar cane. (You can also use molasses or honey). I added some healthy fats with the walnuts, hazelnuts, and a little unsweetened almond milk but, still used 1 tablespoon of butter.

It took me about 10-15 minutes of prep/rolling time. Then another 25-30 minutes in the oven and voila all done. It was so quick and easy to make. So much so, that I made a batch one morning before I headed off for 8 hours of classes. I brought it along and let 15 of my colleagues try it. Everyone found it to be moist, perfectly sweet, and the best part was that no one ever suspected that it was the “healthy” version.

Eating well doesn’t have to mean cutting out all the things you love. A dessert can be filling, sweet, and delicious without undoing all your hard work at the gym or compromising your health. So here is my holiday gift to you and yours….

Bon Appetit!

APPLE WALNUT MONKEY BREAD (Ingredients and Directions)

Ingredients:

(I made the pizza dough and hazelnut & chocolate spread at home. You can find the recipe for the spread on my website. BUT, I am also giving you the store bought options in this recipe.)

1/2 Trader Joe’s Pizza Dough

1 Tbsp Quality Salted Butter (I use Kerry Gold)

1 Small Granny Smith Apple

1/3 C Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

1 Tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract

1 Tbsp Justin’s Natural Chocolate Hazelnut Butter

3 Lg Dried Dates (pitted and coarsely chopped)

1/4 C Date Sugar

3 Tbsp Raw Sugar or Sugar Cane

2 Tbsp Cinnamon

1/4 C Walnut Halves (which I then cut myself into smaller pieces)

1/3 C Apple Sauce

Directions:

Place cinnamon and date sugar into a bowl.

Roll the pizza dough into bite size little balls. Roll in the dry mixture and place in the small baking pan.

Continue to roll until you have one layer at the bottom of the pan. Then add small pieces of green apple and walnuts. (thin layer). Repeat step two and create a second layer of cinnamon/sugar covered balls. Add remaining apples and walnuts to the top layer.

At first look, apples don’t seem to be a huge power house of nutrition. However, when you take into account the benefits of phytonutrients (quercetin, catechin, phloridzin and chlorogenic acid that work as antioxidant against free radicals that invade the body and contribute to chronic diseases), boron, and fiber in apples you might be blown away.

Apples are also a great source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. One form of apple fiber that is particularly useful is pectin. It helps to prevent cholesterol buildup in the lining of blood vessel walls, thus reducing the incident of arteriosclerosis and heart disease.

It also helps to regulate the flow of water in between cells and keeping them rigid. The insoluble fiber in apples provides bulk in the intestinal tract, holding water to cleanse and move food quickly through the digestive system.

Vitamin C: Most people think that C only helps when you are sick but it has many more uses in the body. Vitamin C helps to protect your cells from free radical damage that can cause disease, lowers your risk of cancer, regenerates your Vitamin E supply, also improves iron absorption and promotes lung health. Most of the vitamin C is in the apple skin, so best to eat it whole!

The combination of vitamin D, calcium and magnesium, and boron, act synergistically to maintain good bone mineralization. Boron is also required to convert estrogen and vitamin D to their most active forms.

I like to pull from many different blogs to create my weekly menu meal plans. So, I thought I could share my list of healthy “go to” food bloggers. That way, you can use them as a resource when you’re making up your own weekly menu plans too.

I’ve listed links to the blogs I use most often for yummy recipes and what type of nutritional information they provide, if any (e.g. Weight Watcher’s Points plus, general nutritional information, net carbs, etc.).

I hope this information will help you decide which ones will best fit your eating plan.

What are some of your favorite food blogs? Be sure to tell me in the comments below!